ATG Broadcast has completed its fourth contract for Sweden’s largest independent television channel, TV4. The new installation includes HD ingest, upconversion and transmission facilities at TV4’s headquarters in central Stockholm, representing a first phase in the transition of TV4 from SD to a full SD/HD parallel service.
“ATG Broadcast has worked with us on three earlier projects, developing a broadcast infrastructure that was designed from the outset to allow easy expansion from SD to hybrid and, if the market fully matures, fully HD transmission,” commented Per Atterving, consultant engineer at TV4 Sweden. “Their post-installation support has proved excellent, each new expansion phase interacting efficiently with the system already in operation. Our SD infrastructure uses a highly-efficient fully file-based system and we were very keen to retain that efficiency in the rollout of HD.”
Work on the fourth contract began in March with the installation of an HD ingest area. This included a Snell & Wilcox Memphis MPEG-2 HD encoder and the addition of HD ports to TV4’s Omneon server, plus a substantial investment in Axon interfaces and format converters. Channel branding will be performed using an Avid DekoCast graphics system incorporating clips and cell animation options. A new NVision HD presentation switcher will work alongside the existing Eyeheight SD switcher and will give the network’s programme controllers complete freedom to operate the SD and HD sister channels in tandem or with separate content. An existing 64-square Pro-Bel SD router has been expanded to accommodate 32-square HD crosspoints. The contract also includes a 16 square HD router and Tektronix WFM7100 HD waveform monitor.
“TV4’s decision to choose us for a fourth time to provide systems engineering and integration services is a great vote of confidence in the technical and supervisory skills of our project management team,” added ATG Broadcast Sales Director, Alan Pimm. “This layer of the project included adding 2.7 terabytes of disc storage to the Omneon archive, increasing the total online system capacity to nearly 11TB, all with practically instant access.”
